Can I connect the wires from a car charger to the connections under the unit ?

The USB socket is totally trashed - tracks ripped from the circuit board too.
But the unit works - just no way to charge it -
I am on a very tight budget so I wondered if it was possible to connect the wires from the usb car charger to some of the connections under the unit.
Any other suggestions to charge the unit welcome - sending it for repair will be too costly I think

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Don't try and charge the battery directly, as it is a lithium battery it can explode if not charged correctly.You can try connecting (soldering) wires to the circuit board where the socket was connected to feed in 5V from the power adaptor or USB lead.

No. Your charger should have MiniUSB socket connection (see picture). You can also charge Nuvi by connecting it to computer with the help of standard USB cable. MiniUSB socket is on the back side of Nuvi.

I think I had the same problem. You do not write if your device were connected to the PC. My device was, and I finally got the suspicision, that it died because the battery was so low, that it crashed when the PC polled it as an usb unit.So, I connected the unit directly to the charger unit that came with the unit, and now it works. So, try to connect directly to your charger, when your battery is totally drained.

The one I had had sheared directly of the internal board and their was no PCB track left for re soldering.

I eventually managed to repair the unit by buying a new socket and attaching fine wires which were hard wired to other parts of the PCB then using epoxy glue to refasten the socket. I would consider it a difficult and advanced repair. (Its like micro PCB surgery)

Opening the case is relatively easy. Remove the screws and then use something like a blunt table knife to gently slide between the two case halves until they part bit by bit.

The battery inside the tomtom is a lithium iron type. They generaly do not have any memory effect so you don't need to run them down as it serves no purpose. You can charge lithium iron whenever you want. Sometimes if a lithium iron battery drops below its absolutly flat voltage which is somewhere around 3.2 volts in a tomtom , it wont take a charge. This is because the charger has a protection circuit inside it that shuts it down if too much current is drawn. As such if the tomtom battery is really really flat then the charger will see it as a dead short and will shut itself off meaning that the battery wont charge at all. If you open up the tomtom , then using some wire off-cuts insert them into the batteries little plug holes. Connect a 9v battery to those 2 bits of wires " THE RIGHT WAY ROUND " for about 10 seconds . The battery will then be shocked upwards in voltage. This might then be enough for the charger to see the tomtom battery at over the 3.2 volts. Hopefully the charger will then charge it. Be carefull with is 9v as its actually over-voltage and charging lithium iron batteries can be a bit dodgy if you do it for too long. Actually , using a bench power supply is a much safer idea and you can also limit the current too but if youre not technical and dont have the right kit , then its worth trying the 9v battery thing as last resort. hope this helps.

There is a well known issue with power switch failures on this unit. It happened to me as well. I have heard that you can power the unit on with the car charger or if you plug it into the PC using the USB interface. I will try this tonight and report back my finding. I will be taking mine apart because of my bad experience using Garmin's technical support line. Most likely the problem is a defective switch or broken solder joint where the switch connects to the motherboard. Remember also, you have to hold the switch down for a couple seconds for the unit to power up.

Common issue. Steps to troubleshoot/solve:
1. Pull off face, press reset tab.
2. If unit wont turn on or if turns off immediately, connect to home computer using mini usb on side of gps (any usb cord that fits will do). This will charge the internal gps battery, which is discharged.
3. You will not be able to see the gps charge indicator while the usb cord is plugged into the unit. To check charge level, disconnect it, turn it on, and note the large "battery" icon.
4 Do you have a dead internal battery? If the gps holds a charge from your computer usb port, you don't.
5. If you have a dead battery, Google DIY replacement. With some soldering it can done for $15 total.
6. If you don't have a dead battery, the issue is charging from the cigarette lighter socket. Your car socket may have blown a fuse (check car manual). Your charger unit may have blown a fuse (unscrew the tip, check fuse inside). Also, some car sockets don't work when the ignition is off. Test yours.
7. There is a good chance the connection of the charger wire to the gps cradle is the problem. Fiddle with that. Replacement cradles are available for the c340 at about $25.
8. If your unit is not charging from the cradle/socket, buy a 12v usb cord. Plug into socket and into usb port of the gps. This is a workaround or alternative to buying a new cradle.
9. IMPORTANT: observe the "battery" icon while driving, esp. if you have doubts about charging. Basically, if you can see the icon, you're not connected to an outside (car or computer) power source. That is, if you can see the battery-charge indication, it means your battery is currently discharging and unless you get another power source to work it will be dead in a few hours.